Shatterpoint
by Marquise de Nile
Summary: Coda 693. "Why?" Sakura poses a question. In the aftermath of Sasuke's horrible genjutsu, a new power takes a hold of her soul. No romance. Complete.
1. Shatterpoint

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Summary: Coda 693. "Why?" Sakura poses a question. In the aftermath of Sasuke's horrible genjutsu, a new power takes a hold of her soul. No romance.

Rating: T

**.**

**Shatterpoint**

**.**

Sakura was in a dark place. Bound to a chair, hands twisted uncomfortably and tied behind her back, ankles secured to the wooden legs with thick ropes, she felt helpless and completely alone. Forgotten by her comrades, abandoned by the world, all she could do was to stare into the void, which seemed to swallow her whole.

She was in a belly of a beast.

The black nothing was stinging to her tired, bloodshot eyes. Closing them only exposed her to the pulsating darkness underneath her eyelids, the little sister of the awaiting abyss behind the flimsy curtain of flesh.

Her mind was spinning, the hamster tirelessly running on its wheel, while the same scene replayed over and over again in her head. The brutal death by the hands of the man she loved with all her being, set on repeat for infinity. A never ending torture that ripped her apart over and over again without ever losing its stark intensity. How could anyone even think of enduring this?

No one was strong enough for this.

She was falling apart, slowly disintegrating in the sea of black, excruciating pain. A sob was conceived in her throat and pushed through the narrow space to slide out of her mouth. Her body shook like a leaf as more sobs wrecked through it.

"Why?" A single word, but also a question of utmost importance, fundamental and inescapable since the beginning of times. In her mouth it was ragged, feeble and entirely thoughtless. She didn't even know who she was asking – Sasuke, the Void or maybe God? It was irrelevant as none could give her the answer she desperately needed.

And yet, it came to her, when she was on the very brink of insanity. The salvation encapsulated in the strong voice that gave her the reply she was looking for all this time.

"Because the world is unfair."

It was so simple – why didn't she think of that sooner? Sakura released a short laugh, more of a self-deprecating bark than a genuine sound of amusement. She was so stupid and pathetic.

"Yes... It's unfair," she agreed wholeheartedly.

"So you understand the failure of this reality?" This time the question came at her.

"Yes."

"It doesn't give you happiness, only pain, even though you did nothing to deserve it, am I right?"

"Absolutely," she whispered, reflecting on what happened to her.

"And if you had a power to change it? To make it right?" the voice asked.

Sakura looked up, but there was only the velvet darkness that made the ceiling of her bottomless prison.

"Then I would... do it. I would change it."

"Very good, girl," the voice answered and she felt warm as the praise washed over her, before the next words chilled her to the bone. "Then all you need to do is join me."

"Who are you?" she inquired, fearful and tensed.

"You know who I am."

That arrogance oozing from every clearly enunciated syllable was unmistakeable. Sakura knew him. He was the one she both feared and loathed, despised and admired. Once her foe, now a silver-tongued devil with promises of salvation dripping from his lips, like a water to her parched, thirsty throat.

But Sakura was stronger than this.

"Why would I join you? All you offer is to replace this reality with a fake one," she accused scathingly. "That's not a change. Just a beautiful lie."

Silence. Then the rich baritone chuckled, resonating within the cage of darkness she was entrapped in.

"Tell me, did that genjutsu feel fake? Was the sensation of the arm going through your chest not real? Did the pain of death mean nothing to you because it happened only in the illusion?"

"Of course it hurt me like it was real, but it _wasn't_," she argued hotly. "I'm still alive, my heart beats. The genjutsu is just a nightmare, it will pass and soon I will forget all about it."

_Yes, just a nightmare... _Sakura reassured herself. When she would wake up, she would be alright, definitely. She only needed to escape from her chains and return to the reality, then she could put this whole experience behind her.

"Stop lying to yourself," the voice lashed out sharply, striking at the open wound.

"I'm not..." A denial sprang to her lips in a knee-jerk reaction, but he would have none of that.

"Stop. Lying. Girl." The harsh rebuke stung like a slap to the face.

She recoiled, taking in a breath then released it with a hiss.

"Think and think hard," the voice commanded. "Was the pain you felt in the genjutsu any less real than it would have been in reality? Can you call a fake any other sensation or emotion you experience? Does their sincerity depend on their source?"

She had no retort and he expected none. "No?" he continued, merciless and logical. "Then why don't you abandon the foolish notion that reality is defined by your body alone?" She listened almost against herself, entranced by his reasoning. He expanded more upon this concept, driving a final nail in the coffin of her old beliefs, exposing their flaws to the naked eye and compelling her to see what was obscured behind them. "Reality is the product of your mind, girl. It's your perception that decides what is real and what is not real. Nothing else."

She trembled with the revelation, mouthing his words to herself, rolling them on her tongue and feeling for the slightest blemishes, which weren't there. She considered countless counters but they all sounded like hollow excuses when faced with the utter truth presented to her, so raw and unadulterated in its beauty. She wanted to cry and laugh at the same time at its perfection, at the solution that was there all the time and which no one else took despite every opportunity to do so. Were they all so narrow-minded that they had never seen this?

And as she gradually accepted and integrated it all within herself, the ropes unnoticeably loosened and dissolved and the strength returned to her limbs, chakra flooding the muscles like a river that broke a dam.

"Did you decide, girl?" The voice seemed amused. Did he know what she was thinking? Or was it his inner joke she wasn't privy to?

She steeled her resolve. "My name is Sakura," she told him.

"Very well, Sakura. You know what to do."

And the darkness cracked and condensed, to be siphoned away to the place right under her torn, bleeding heart, where it laid as a miniature black hole, ready to devour anything that came in close contact.

Sakura came to, sputtering and gasping for air, to the worried face of her old sensei looming over her. Every line not covered by the mask was like a deep canyon, a ravine carved by age and stress. She appreciated the familiar, comforting sight.

"Sakura, are you alright?" Kakashi asked.

She breathed in and out a few times, calming and steadying herself for what would happen next.

"I'm fine."

She pushed him gently away and rose to her feet, then tried to walk, a drunken gait interrupted by a wobble in her knees as she stumbled. She broke the fall with her hands, scraping them on the stone, then crawled on all fours, her eyes focused only on her destination.

"Sakura, what are you doing?" Kakashi called after her, puzzled, still unsuspecting, but he couldn't follow. He was too weakened by the use of Sharingan to even stand.

She reached the body – so peaceful in death, she felt almost bad for him, the previous enemy – and knelt by his side. This was her last chance to back off, to forget what he told her, to dismiss it as a figment of her imagination – but it was impossible, because her eyes were opened to the truth now.

_You know what to do._

_Yes, I do,_ she thought and raised her hands above Madara's body, channeling the green medical chakra into the tips of her fingers.

She knew exactly what to do.

**.**

**The End**

**.**

_AN: So this is my reaction to chapter 693._

_Thanks for reading! :)_


	2. Epilogue 1

**Epilogue 1**

**Wake up!**

**.**

The medical chakra that left her from her fingertips and seeped into Madara's heart and brain was different than usual. Sakura wasn't just looking for a trace of life still clinging in the recesses of his body; she was actively drawing on her life-force and converting it into chakra, just like she had seen Elder Chiyo had done when she had revived Gaara, so long ago that it seemed almost not like her own memory, but a distant dream. The times before the war were kind of blurry in her feverish mind, but Chiyo's technique was one of those things that were engraved in Sakura's mind like ancient stone inscriptions.

"Sakura, what are you doing? He's dead, just leave him alone!" Kakashi shouted to her, his alarm increasing when she simply ignored his call and concentrated on pouring even more chakra into the corpse. It was still so fresh that it wasn't even completely cool when she touched it.

With this observation, the faith in her success redoubled. If Gaara could have been returned to life so long after he had died, Madara's chances were without a doubt a lot higher. She remembered Sage's words and scoffed. There were too many instances of Jinchurikis surviving the Bijuu removal to believe that Madara couldn't be saved.

Sweat accumulated on her forehead and her arms shook with the effort of keeping up her technique, but Sakura just gritted her teeth and pushed on. Just a little more!

"Sakura, stop this! Sakura!" Kakashi yelled, panicked. He was helpless, the exhaustion of the extensive use of Sharingan in the war was taking its toll on him. It was already a miracle that he was even conscious.

He was getting desperate. As a genius, he also recognized Chiyo's technique and quickly connected the dots. He didn't understand Sakura's reasons for trying to revive Madara of all people, but he sure as hell couldn't allow this menace to return after so much was sacrificed to fight him off. Kakashi regretfully pulled a shuriken out of his pouch.

"Stop now! I don't want to hurt you, Sakura! Don't make me do this!" he called out, giving her the last chance to cease this insanity. Sakura didn't even turn her head. Kakashi forced his arm to still, then took his mark. "I'm sorry, Sakura!" he shouted and threw the sharp weapon.

Even without the aid of the Sharingan, Kakashi's accuracy was perfect. The shuriken buried in her flesh and cut through a tendon, rendering the whole arm useless. Sakura cried out in pain, but her focus on healing didn't waver.

She was weakening, her head becoming dizzy with the heavy loss of chakra, but she tasted just how close she was to success.

"Come on!" she snarled, pumping the life-giving energy into Madara's body. "Come on! Wake up! Wake up, you bastard!" With that last cry, she shot a powerful torrent of condensed chakra into both his heart and brain, draining herself completely. She vaguely heard Kakashi's shouts and everything jumped before her eyes, losing the normal sharpness as she succumbed to exhaustion. _Was it all in vain?_ she asked herself, her eyes shutting down, along with the rest of her system.

Something stirred beneath her wooden, numb fingers. And then...

A beat.

With the last of her energy she smiled.

Kakashi watched with a heart in his throat as Sakura's body pitched forward, sure that she had just killed herself before his very eyes to bring back an enemy, and he, her sensei, was unable to save her. What was he going to tell Naruto and Sasuke when they came back (he refused to think only one of them would live after their fight)? That he failed their team again and let Sakura die on his watch?

Unacceptable.

All of this went through Kakashi's mind at a speed of lightning as Sakura's body seemed to fall in a slow motion, almost like she was diving through the air, when suddenly an arm shot up and held her up. The arm's owner gasped and heaved, gulping in the air ravenously, then finally sat up with a groan, letting the girl's head rest against his shoulder for a moment.

Madara looked around, disoriented as he took a while to adjust to being alive once again. The slight weight against him drew his eyes downwards. He recognized that girl – Hashirama's granddaughter's little student. The pink hair was so distinctive that it could be only her.

An arrogant smirk appeared as he contemplated the girl. He remembered his brief visit to her mind. She had fallen prey to a powerful genjutsu, a vision of her own death by the person she loved the most, and it had thrown her into a despair. He had come to her, when she had called for a reason, desperate to make sense of all this madness, and foulness, and inadequacy, and pain she had to suffer through. He had answered her call and shown her the light – and in turn, she became one of his own.

Looking at the delicate pinkness on her head, Madara recalled her name.

"Sakura..." he murmured and put a hand on her head, sending a spike of chakra into the fading girl. His reserves, while still not full, were sufficient enough to keep her from dying. It was only fair for him to return the favour, right?

Madara stood up and lifted the unconscious girl in his arms. With the Rinnegan he could tell the location of his nearest hidden base despite the lack of landmarks due to the devastation the war had caused.

"Wait! Leave her alone!" someone screamed and Madara took notice of the pest. It was only Obito's old teammate and former Sharigan-wielder. The man's reserves were so depleted, it was pitiful. No wonder Madara didn't see him there earlier with such an insignificant presence.

He considered killing the weak shinobi, but decided to refrain. It would be like squashing a bug and his death would be suspicious. Besides, Madara had much better means to leave without a trace.

The Uchiha flashed to the man's side and caught his gaze, sending him into a genjutsu, which would erase his memory of these events. When Kakashi would wake up, he would have absolutely no idea what happened to both Sakura and Madara.

A rumble of a clash, so far away but still heard over the distance, reminded Madara that the last battle of this war – between reincarnations of Sage's sons – was drawing to a close. He had to retreat and regroup before the winner was decided.

Madara adjusted the girl in his arms and sent a challenging look in the direction of the Valley of the End.

"Sooner or later, I will enjoy crushing you... Naruto, Sasuke..." he announced arrogantly.

Madara set off to the north.

**.**

_AN:_ _There will be another, alternative epilogue. Stay tuned! :)_


	3. Epilogue 2

**Epilogue 2**

**Madara's Will**

**.**

"Sakura, what are you doing?" Kakashi asked his student, uneasily staring at her back which concealed any movements she made as she bent over Madara's corpse. The lack of response only worsened his suspicions. He wasn't sure, but he thought he saw a glint of green chakra coming from her hands when she raised them for a second.

Sakura wholly disregarded her old teacher, her green eyes narrowed as she examined the cooling body. She confirmed that Madara was well and truly dead – no blood flow, no brain activity, no chakra reactions to her probes. In the end, he was only human and therefore fallible, despite all the power he amassed, all the experience he gathered and all the shrewdness he possessed.

And yet, his will, his spirit lingered. What else had contacted her when she'd been under the genjutsu, locked in her own body and without hope? Sakura wouldn't have believed that it was really him if it didn't happen on the same day she'd seen the ghosts of Sage and dead Kages from all villages. Even Obito's spirit had stayed for a while with Kakashi before finally moving on, so it wasn't a stretch to imagine Madara was capable of the same if not more. However, she couldn't shake off the feeling that she was mistaken after all...

Sakura touched Madara's cheek lightly. It was smooth and marble-like. But beneath the beautiful shell there was no life.

A finger traced up his jaw to the ear, then slid horizontally to the nose and stopped in the corner of the eye.

The one who had answered her inside her mind... a mind that controls her perception of reality... was it really him? She had been imprisoned in her own head by the genjutsu at the time, on the verge of a breakdown and a dead man who had barely known her would have appeared out of nowhere, to the rescue? Preposterous.

A finger brushed a closed eyelid delicately.

_Is he still here? Or was it all just another illusion? _Sakura wondered.

_I was always here, Sakura. You just didn't notice me for a long time._

Sakura's finger paused as she gazed inwardly, startled and intrigued by the voice's response.

_Come to think of it, I didn't see you there, too, _she pointed out, much calmer than she should have been.

_But you felt me. Heard me. Believed me._

Sakura's brow shot up in suspicion. _Who are you, really?_

A chuckle. _You know who I am._

_Are you... _Sakura hesitated, but the supposition wouldn't give her a rest until she asked. _Are you... me?_

_I am a voice in your head. _An answer that wasn't an answer. This was getting frustrating to the kunoichi.

_Then how can you be Madara? _she pursued impatiently.

_Shouldn't you know? _the voice mocked in return.

Sakura frowned and thought about it again. What was she missing? The answer was just there, she was certain of that as she grasped around blindly in the cluttered, dark room of her mind.

Sakura breathed in slowly, centering herself, clearing the space inside from all the unneeded nonsense laying around. With the exhale she was ready to tackle this problem.

Madara was undeniably gone. His spirit went with the Kages, though there was a small possibility he stayed behind, as stubborn as he was during his life. But there was no reason for him to contact her. They briefly clashed during the war and that was it. Unlike with Kakashi and Obito, there was no personal connection or history between her and Madara for his spirit to want to visit her.

How would he have even entered her mind when she'd been trapped in a genjutsu?

Unless...

Sakura sucked in the air, surprised at the answer she found.

_Now you're getting it. Clever girl, _the voice purred, pleased with her fast deduction.

Sakura smiled.

_So you are me... who is Madara. Or like Madara._

It made so much sense. The only one in her mind could be herself... but psyche is a delicate and complicated mechanism. There are too many different dimensions, layers upon layers, forgotten, hidden or rejected parts tucked in at the back or wrapped up safely to sleep undisturbed, that not even the Yamanaka clan could really solve the mystery that was a human mind.

And there was a part of her, awakened by Sasuke's genjutsu, by the deep suffering of her broken heart, a part that felt exactly like Madara, and so it manifested and talked as him. It had taken his form, his mannerism, all because it shared Madara's will and dreams.

It was her. It was Madara, a real one, living in her and, soon, through her.

A laugh bubbled up and slipped through her chapped lips.

"You were right," she mumbled to the dead man, so peaceful and regal in his eternal slumber. A true former god. "I'm sorry I realized it only now, Madara."

His features were relaxed and beautiful. He couldn't answer but she felt that he would have given her a nod of approval. He wouldn't have been angry at her.

Sakura drew up, her resolve burning bright in her eyes. She still needed to enact her plan. For the dream of a happy world. For herself. For Madara.

"Kakashi-sensei, give me your pouch," she ordered her anxious comrade.

"What do you need it for?" he asked curtly. "Because if you intend to do what I think you want to do, then I'm going to stop you with everything I still got, Sakura."

Sakura smiled gently. "Don't worry, Kakashi-sensei, I'm not bringing Madara back," she reassured him and he sensed she was telling the truth. "There's just something I need to do. It's nothing dangerous. And it will help us win."

Kakashi studied her face, then warily nodded. "Alright, I trust you, Sakura. What do you need?"

"All bandages and medicine you have on you. Something to clean and disinfect my hands would be great too," she listed off quickly.

Kakashi was relieved she didn't ask for weapons. He didn't question anymore, just tossed her the required supplies. Sakura got to work, though she was careful to block Kakashi's view of what she was exactly doing to Madara's corpse.

Hands scrubbed from blood and dirt as well as possible with only a bit of water and a piece of bandage, Sakura reached down and peeled off Madara's eyelid. A murky, glassy orb with concentric rings gleamed, reflecting the light. The medic channeled her chakra to the other hand and cut the network of blood vessels, nerves and small tendons that kept the eyeball in place, then carefully pulled it out and set it on a prepared clean piece of bandage. The same operation was repeated with the other eye.

Sakura exhaled and wiped off her forehead. The first stage was complete. The next one will be much harder, but she had to do it if she wanted to succeed.

With a small grimace, but unwavering determination in her heart, Sakura raised her hands to her own eye and equally precisely plucked it out.

The pain was unbearable – burning and terrifying as half of her vision was cut off but she bit her tongue, tasting blood and only with a small whimper of agony continued the procedure.

"Sakura! What's going on?! You said it wasn't dangerous!" Kakashi still heard the small sound, which renewed his worry and suspicion.

Well, he was too late. Sakura would have smiled sardonically, but it would only loosen her control and release the scream she was valiantly keeping in.

In the darkness, she unerringly found the eyes in the same place she had left them, waiting to be picked up and used. Feeling around with her chakra, she inserted them in her empty eye sockets and immediately enveloped the area with medical chakra, mending everything that was broken, reconnecting nerves and numbing the pain until it was dull enough. When she was done, she reached for a chakra-replenishing pill – the last Kakashi had – and dry-swallowed it.

"Sakura, what did you do?" her teacher asked, his anxiety palpable.

She shakily stood up and made a handsign. Usually, the recovery after eye transplant would take much longer, at least a few weeks, but she wasn't Tsunade's student for nothing. She was the best healer of her generation. Maybe of all time.

The diamond on Sakura's forehead unfurled and markings of the seal spread across her body, healing everything in an instant. The kunoichi turned around to her comrade and heard him gasp at the thick blood on her cheeks.

Sakura slowly opened her new eyes.

"Rinnegan... Why did you... You don't mean you..." Kakashi stammered in complete shock. She looked unlike Sakura. This wasn't the sweet, compassionate girl he knew. She felt inhuman, the sensation strengthened by the cold, inexpressive eyes that didn't really suit her pretty face.

"Sensei, I'm going to join the battle. Please, stay here," Sakura told him and the unchanged caring in her voice assuaged his concern for a bit.

"Sakura, you don't have to do this. Going between them will be a suicide, Rinnegan or not!" he attempted to dissuade her from her foolish plans. Did that girl want to die so bad? There was no way to stop Naruto and Sasuke, not at the level they were at!

Sakura smiled. "I'm not going between them, sensei. I'm going to beat them. And when I return, I promise you – it will be a better world. Without hate, without pain or war. The world of happiness. So, don't worry, sensei," she appeared right behind him and knocked him out. "Sweet dreams."

The successor of Madara ran for the Valley of the End without looking back.

**.**

**.**

_AN: So this is the other ending. I think I'll wait for Kishimoto to conclude manga first before I'll consider writing a continuation. For now, I declare Shatterpoint as a completed story._

_Thanks for reading and please tell me your thoughts :)_


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